Almost Paradise Open for Busniness

South Dundas welcomed a new business to town when dignitaries, family and friends joined Kelly Keeler and Andy Major at the grand opening of Almost Paradise, at 147 Main Street, Morrisburg, October 18.

Almost Paradise is a tanning salon and boutique, as well as an outlet for Sears. “We know there is risk involved in opening a business,” said owner Kelly Keeler, “but we went with it. We wanted to do something new. We hope the community will like what we have to offer and will support us.”

MP Guy Lauzon, the mayor of South Dundas, Steven Byvelds, acting chair of the SD Chamber of Commerce, Donnie Bowes, County Warden, Eric Duncan and South Dundas council members Evonne Delegarde, Jim Locke, Jim Graham and Archie Mellan, were all on hand to offer personal congratulations and words of support to the new business owners.

“We are always looking for economic growth in our region,” said MP Lauzon. “Small businesses like this one are the backbone of our economy.”

“Thank you for choosing South Dundas for your business,” said Eric Duncan, whose words were echoed by mayor Byvelds when he thanked Keeler and Major for their hard work and enthusiasm and “making sure this corner of South Dundas stays active.”

Almost Paradise was newly renovated by Keeler, Major and friends and family. The boutique welcomes the public to drop in.

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“Actually, we were surprised even to be considered at the board level,” said Jennifer Perry, Crystal Phifer and Tracy Moorhouse, teachers at Iroquois Public School. “So it was exciting and really overwhelming to learn that we had been selected for an award at the Ministry Level.”

The Teacher Learning and Leadership Program award carries with it a grant of $25,900 from the Ministry which the educators will use to develop their project. They will work specifically with teachers at their own school, and within the Upper Canada board, then, if asked, share their findings and skills with other interested boards in the province.

The collaborative proposal created by the three teachers entitled Growing with Math and Mind was first submitted to a committee of supervisors at the UCDSB: chosen with one other submission to represent this particular board, the Iroquois teachers’ proposal was examined by the Ministry, along with proposals from every other board of education in the province.

It was a very significant honour for the three elementary teachers and their school to learn that the Ministry Teacher Learning and Leadership Program ultimately had chosen their proposal for implementation.

Their proposal examines ways to break a “mind set” which has become perhaps all too common among students, their parents and among teachers over the last few years.

It is a mind set which says “I can’t,” rather than exploring ways to say “I can.”

“The idea is to teach children to accomplish goals through hard work,” Jennifer Perry explained. “It is not necessary for a person to somehow be ‘gifted’ in a subject to succeed, to think that you can either ‘do math,’ for example, or you can’t. Many people think that intelligence is pre-determined. Our premise is that effort and practice can create success. Neither kids nor teachers should give up. There is no such thing as “math” or “non math” people: the basis of success is the work you are willing to put into a subject, or a project, anything.”

“We see kids give up too easily,” said Crystal Phifer. “We based our study on math because there is so much negative thought associated with math. Kids need to understand that getting a wrong answer, even several times, is not the end.”

“We are trying to make students (and teachers too) understand that you have to find another way, different approaches to any problem,” said Tracy Moorhouse. “You have to get over mind sets. Too many kids have never learned that you can actually grow out of mistakes, even failure. It doesn’t mean an end to trying.”

“We ultimately want kids to leave school believing that they can always learn, that it is better to learn from mistakes, rather than to just sit back and never accept any kind of challenge,” said Jennifer Perry.

A prominent educator and psychologist whose work has had a profound effect on the three teachers is Dr. Carol S. Dweck, of Stanford University. Her book, Mindset: How we Can Learn to Fulfill Out Potential has been inspiring educators to break out of long held, even cherished, mind sets.

“When teachers and students focus on improvements rather than on whether they are ‘smart’, kids learn a lot more,” Dweck has written. “I have always been deeply moved by outstanding achievement and saddened by wasted potential.”

“We need growth out of these mind sets,” the Iroquois teachers explained. “You can learn to do anything. Of course someone may be better at something than you, but you can still succeed. You have to keep trying, exploring other ways to learn.”

EQAO results in math led the three to feel that there was an opportunity to grow in math, to make a change.

In their proposal, the Iroquois teachers wrote that “a school culture that develops and promotes a growth mind set in students and teachers will increase students’ learning. Our goal is that all adults will believe that hard work and learning from errors will allow all students to succeed in learning at any level. Teachers will facilitate flexible number sense strategies to increase the understanding and ability to solve early algebraic problems.”

Accepting and learning from mistakes, exploring new ways, or different approaches to a challenge can have long term positive effects in fields far beyond math. Despite failures and frustrations and sometimes years of setbacks, research into the problems of cancer, for example, cannot be derailed by what Dweck would describe as unproductive mind sets.

Making mistakes should never signal an end to trying, as teachers Jennifer Perry, Crystal Phifer and Tracy Moorhouse hope to prove through their award winning proposal.

“There is a quote from Henry Ford that I like to draw on that I think sums up the problems with mind sets,” said Jennifer Perry. “He said, ‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.’”

Tuesday, July 2, St. Lawrence Medical Clinic opened the doors of the new Iroquois clinic to its patients and to future growth.

Friday, June 28, The Leader was given a tour of the former St. Cecilia School in Iroquois.

The nearly $1 million, four month renovation of the former school was finished last week, on time and on budget.

“The retrofit of this old school into a new clinic worked really nicely,” said Stephen McCann, SLMC business manager.

The new location features 6,300 square feet of clinic space, with the opportunity to add more clinic space if needed as the school gymnasium remains in tact. For now, is being used for storage.

This new configuration of the old school features much that was missing from the old clinic location that was only about 1,700 square feet in size.

Accessible washrooms, a full lab, mini lab, designated procedure room, secondary waiting room, and more secure reception area are all features of the bright, clean, beautiful new space that is filled with new equipment and furnishings.

McCann estimates that between this project and the ongoing Morrisburg clinic project, SLMC has invested about $170,000 in new equipment and furnishings.

“This will be a lot better,” said Debbie Shaver, SLMC receptionist, of the new Iroquois clinic, who was proud to show off the new space. “This should allow us to move more patients through,” she said, explaining that the spacious waiting areas and prep areas should allow for improved efficiency.

Presently the clinic is staffed with three doctors, the equivalent of two on a full time basis, three nurses, one lab tech and one receptionist, but now has room to grow their staff at every level.

In this new set up, each doctor has their own office and three patient exam rooms.

“This expansion gives us the opportunity to bring in a third doctor full time,” said McCann. He also added that they now have space to better accommodate the students who are always part of the process as all of the SLMC’s doctors are preceptors.

While having space for an additional doctor, the new space also opens up the opportunity to add ancillary services such as nurse practitioners. While that is not a reality yet, that is an opportunity that the SLMC group can pursue.

McCann explained that every part of this project has been designed and built with longevity in mind and with a view to the future, right from the floors to the air system to the network cabling.

“We are ready for the next 20 years,” said McCann.

The building is owned by the Municipality of South Dundas, and leased to the doctors for 20 years. The terms of that agreement are such that the cost of the renovation will be fully recovered through the lease.

CIBC or Hawkesbury was contractor for the project, that was supervised locally by Hartley Hodgson. “We are 100 percent satisfied with the job they did here,” said McCann. “Working with them was a great experience.

The Iroquois Clinic was the first of SLMC’s clinic projects to be completed. The Morrisburg clinic is looking at September completion. There is a desire for renovated space in Ingleside as well, if another doctor joins the group.

British Home Child Day was celebrated for the first time on September 28th at Upper Canada Village (UCV) with a full day of activities, including presentations, skits, readings, displays, bagpipes and more.

An historical overview from the Canadian Citizenship & Immigration webstie outlines why this period of our history is important.

“Home Children quietly helped build our country and their many descendants continue to do so today. Yet the migration of British children to Canada is a little-known chapter of Canada’s immigration and social history.”

“Between 1869 and the late 1940s, British religious and philanthropic organizations transported about 100,000 children to Canada to live with Canadian families and work as farm labourers or domestic servants.”

“In Canada, the children would become known as Home Children, as the institutions from which many of them came were known as Homes. The best-known, Barnardo’s Homes, sent approximately 30,000 children to Canada, 70 percent of them boys.”

A Native Red Maple tree and a plaque donated by Jim Brownell, MPP for Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry were unveiled in an afternoon ceremony at Aultsville Station complete with the sounds of bagpipes.

In a release by Brownell, he stated: “Over the years, we shall watch the growth of this tree, just as the descendents of these British Home Children have grown and multiplied, and have contributed, in countless and significant ways, to the social and economic fibre of Ontario’s communities.”

Carolyn Goddard, chairperson for the British Home Child Day Committee of SD&G, (BHCDC)got things underway with a short reading from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, where Rachel Lynde is discussing the horrors of orphan children to Marilla Cuthbert. Marilla’s brother Matthew was, at the time, on his way to the station to collect the new addition to their family.

Tom Brownell, secretary for the BHCDC, spoke next about his brother Jim’s efforts and eventual victory in making September 28th officially British Home Child Day in Ontario with the passing of Bill 185.

Brownell explained the significance of the September date: “Mary Scott Pearson (Brownell’s grandmother) stepped off the boat in Halifax 120 years ago today.”

Brownell also informed the crowd that Nova Scotia had just passed a bill making September 28 British Home Child Day there as well.

He told the crowd that an “important part of this story that deserves to be told” is how these children were “susceptible to mistreatment” because they weren’t closely monitored by the organizations that sent them.

He went on to say that while they did endure hardships, many also “went on to lead proud lives. Almost all who came to Canada remained in Canada.”

These children “helped to cultivate our country’s values” as well as fight for our country during the war.

He concluded saying, the British Home Children are “part of our country’s history, they’re part of our past, and their descendents are part of our future.”

Chairman for the St. Lawrence Parks Commission Ron Eamer and South Dundas Mayor Steven Byvelds each took turns speaking before the introduction of Leeds and Grenville MPP Steve Clark.

Clark dedicated the tree and unveiled the plaque in place of Jim Brownell who was unable to attend the event. He began by saying, “just the fact that we’re here deserves applause.”

He went on to detail the long road leading to this day saying that “private member’s bills rarely get passed.”

Most significantly, Clark is proud of the fact that he, Brownell and Parkdale-Highpark MPP Cheri DiNovo, “the three parties have gotten together to get this bill passed – putting politics aside and doing something good for the province of Ontario.”

Clark informed the crowd that Brockville was the “location of one of the receiving homes,” Fairknowe Home. This home, still standing in Brockville today, was originally built by William Quarrier of Scotland for the purpose of receiving “his” children from Scotland.

Clark went on to talk about the discovery that his wife’s paternal grandfather, Sidney Roberts, was a Home Child with “a story much the same as Mary Scott Pearson.”

Following the tree and plaque dedication, a vignette, “Arrival of British Home Children, Aultsville Train Station” was performed by Dave Hanson, Tyler Konick, Faith McCrae and Shannon McCrae.

There were eight other vignettes to follow at different locations throughout UCV detailing different time periods and experiences of British Home Children.

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa was set up in the Harvest Barn with an abundance of pictures, books, articles, and artifacts detailing the history of the British Home Children. Many were on hand to talk, educate, and share stories.

Sandra Joyce, whose father came to Canada from Scotland in 1925 as a Home Child, launched her new book “The Street Arab – A British Home Child Story” with two scheduled readings at the Village Store.

Rounding out the day was the Just Kiddin’ Theatre from Metcalfe who performed on the Cook’s Tavern verandah. “

According to their website: “Just Kiddin’ Theatre is a volunteer organization that delivers dramatic arts to students in Ottawa’s rural South. The program is based on the belief that enrichment of the arts is not only a fun and enjoyable experience but presents opportunity to develop skills that will positively impact students for the rest of their lives.”

Immediately following the performance, guests with dinner reservations made their way to Willard’s Hotel, where they were welcomed with bagpipe melody.

Throughout the day it was said by many – time and again – that British Home Child Day will forever be an opportunity for Canadians to celebrate the courage and perseverance of the British Home Children who triumphed over adversity.